Her Own Way
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: Sybil/Branson 100-word drabbles. Seventeen: After Sybil's death, Tom changes. Eighteen: Pre-S2. Sybil makes an ultimately wasted effort. Nineteen: Tom returns a kindness.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Dialogue only 100 word drabble. Set during 1x04. Because why else would he have been there?

**Her Own Way**

* * *

"I got my own way… With the frock."

"I'm pleased to hear it, milady."

"I'll wear it to dinner tonight. Everyone in the sitting room will see it then."

"I hope they like it as much as you do, milady."

"I'm not sure…

"I do like that room. There's a lovely view over the gardens. Through the window above the roses… I suppose if someone were walking in the gardens tonight they might see my new frock too."

"…I suppose they might, milady."

"It is a nice night for a walk, isn't it Branson?"

"Yes, milady, I think it is."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Decided I like the challenge of trying to write something in exactly 100 words. I may post more, but I'm not promising. This is inspired by Branson's amazingly sexy and utterly adorable new hairstyle in the season 3 teaser trailer. Ran out of inspiration with the title sorry.

**Hair**

* * *

She loved his hair.

He had no idea why but her hands always seemed to find their way into it.

Not that he minded. It felt _really_ good.

"Have you ever had a fringe?" she asked one day afterwards, as they lay together in their bed, idly playing with his hair.

"Not since I was little." He sat up so he could see the mirror and the way she'd combed it with her fingers so it swept down across his forehead.

It made him look far too young.

"I like it," she declared.

Then again, maybe it wasn't that bad.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Takes place after 1x06.

**Careful**

* * *

He shouldn't even be here.

He should have been dismissed, sent away the second he bought home the youngest daughter with an inch wide gash on her head.

Yet here he was.

He would be under close supervision, he had no doubt of that, but he'd survived with only a stern warning to "be more careful."

She had come to him the very next day. Not staying for long, she couldn't, but they'd made their peace and as she'd left she'd smiled at him his heart had leapt in his chest.

... Oh, yes, he definitely should have been more careful.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Prompt via waroftheposes on Tumblr. Hope you guys like it, I know these are short but it is tricky to keep to _exactly_ 100 words and I do spend quite a bit of time on them. I'd love to know what you think.

**Family**

* * *

She clings to his hand like a drowning woman clinging to a lifeboat. And she hasn't even hit the water yet.

She's nervous. How can she not be?

These are the people who made her Tom the man she loves, the only other people on Earth who care for him as much as her.

She's the woman who stole his heart. Kept him in England, away from them, for _seven_ years.

Why should they even _like_ her?

"They're going to love you," he assures her.

Tom raises his hand to knock and Sybil just wishes she could have his certainty.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Prompt via pennants-aloft on Tumblr. All info from Wikipedia.

**Research**

* * *

She had… _borrowed_ the book from Dr. Clarkson's office. She would return it but first there was one thing she _needed_ to know about.

She found the entry quickly, the heading so black and white on the page: _Mitral valve prolapse_

There was a drawing of a heart and many words she didn't know though some phrases jumped out at her.

_…commonly benign…_

_…increased mortality rate when a murmur is present…_

Branson's voice rang clear in her mind- _"causing a pan-systolic murmur"_

She snapped the book shut.

She had been so relieved.

Was nothing with him _ever_ to be simple?


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Based on the S3 spoilers about Branson's reception on their return. Also, just discovered my word program thinks hyphenated words are just one. So I'm going with it.

**Little Lamb**

* * *

_He's like a puppy_, Mary thought, watching her brother-in-law as he trotted by, close on the heels of her sister.

_Or a little lamb… and everywhere that Sybil went the lamb was sure to go._

If anyone wanted him they only had to find Sybil and he'd be right there beside her. But of course, no one did.

He'd broken the rules of downstairs and such was an outcast there and he most certainly wasn't welcome upstairs.

No wonder he stayed close- Sybil was his only friend in the whole house.

And quite unexpectedly, Mary felt almost sorry for him.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** For the Tumblr prompt of Sybil and Tom's first meeting.

**Impressions**

* * *

They first meet when he is to drive her to join her mother and sister in Ripon. They speak no more than a sentence each but form their first impression of the other immediately.

"You're the new chauffeur, aren't you?"

"That's right, milday, I'm Branson."

_He's rather handsome_, she thinks, as she gets into the motor and watches him start it.

She doesn't know it yet, but the thought will last her entire life.

_She'll be just like the rest of them then_, he thinks idly, as he takes her to join the shopping trip.

His doesn't last the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Based on recent spoliers. Very soon to be AU.

**Suitable**

* * *

"You have nothing to fear from me, you know."

Tom doesn't need to turn around, he knows that voice. Sybil's former suitor.

_We wrote a few letters years ago, really it was nothing_

"Even if I was still interested, do you think she would be?"

_Such trust you have in me, Tom!_

"It's not her…"

_I know it was unfair for them to invite him, I'm angry too_

"No, I suppose not," the other man agrees. "Do you know they told me she might be unhappy?"

Tom turns then, to meet his steady gaze.

"It would seem I was misinformed."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **For The Yankee Countess, though it's not quite what you asked for I hope you like it. Also inspired by a scene in the trailer and a few conversations on Tumblr. Will be AU in** LESS THAN 24 HOURS**!

**Advice**

* * *

"You're a fool."

Matthew looks up sharply at the words but Tom refuses to apologise.

"You have everything you want _so _close and you are all that's in the way."

"I don't deserve that money, Mr. Swire didn't know-"

"No." Tom can't listen to this. "Please, take it from someone who _truly_ had to fight. If you can be with her, you do _whatever _it takes."

"... Do you know what Sybil would have given for our marriage to be as accepted as yours?"

Matthew is silent.

"You love her. Stop being selfish, and do whatever you must to keep her."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Set after 3x05.

**Name**

* * *

He hadn't put his daughter down yet, and no one dared suggest he should.

She was his baby.

Cora wandered, lost, though the house and found them in the library.

He didn't look up but he must have heard her because he didn't react when she sat down beside him, close enough that their arms were touching.

"Sybil." The name came suddenly into the silence and hung in the air, not quite a suggestion but not yet a certainty.

He looked up, meeting her eyes and Cora simply nodded and looked down at her baby's baby.

"What a lovely name."


	11. Chapter 11

**Lie Back**

* * *

"They look so small," Sybil sighs, reaching a hand up toward the sky, as if the stars twinkling above are only just out of reach.

Tom smiles, shifting slightly on the soft grass they lie on.

"Are you cold?" he asks, not wanting to break the moment but always worried about her.

"No, and they're so pretty." She reaches out to take his hand, "let's stay a little longer."

Tom lifts her hand and presses a kiss to it. "I do love you so very much."

"I know," Sybil replies, used to his spontaneous declarations.

"I love you too, Da."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Because if Mary and Daisy can do it, Tom's sure as hell going to feel _this_.

**Wrong**

* * *

He wakes suddenly, the sharp pain in his chest making him gasp and he just _knows_.

Sybil.

Something's wrong.

Something is _terribly_ wrong.

He's up before he can think, running faster than he thought possible.

"SYBIL!"

The scream rips from his throat.

He's in her room.

"I need to get up," she says, her body covered in sweat and her eyes unfocused.

"No, my darling," Tom pleads.

"What's wrong?" Mary asks, "Sybil? Why is she like that?"

"Get the doctor!" Matthew yells at someone.

How did they get in here?

His chest hurts, she screams.

"No, oh please god, no."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **I feel like some people may really not like this one but I do think Tom would have gone to some pretty dark places right after Sybil's death.

**Should**

* * *

He could hate her.

Why not? He hates everyone else.

He hates Mary and Edith for remaining.

He hates Matthew for still having his wife.

He hates Lord Grantham for not listening.

He hates Cora for forgiving her husband.

He hates the servants for carrying on.

He hates Sybil for leaving him.

He hates himself for letting her.

If it wasn't for this child she would still be alive.

He should hate her.

Yet when he holds his daughter and sees his own eyes blink back from above Sybil's nose, he looks into his heart, and finds nothing but love.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Set right after 3x05.

**Letter**

* * *

Sybil is gone and the baby asleep when Cora finds him looking through the drawers of a desk in the library.

"I need to send a letter."

"We've sent telegrams," Cora says softly.

Tom nods.

But they wouldn't have sent one to her.

He doesn't want her to hear like that either.

"I have to write this one myself."

She deserves to hear it from him.

Cora must understand because she simply sits him at the desk before setting out a pen and paper. "We'll send it in the evening post."

He picks up the pen and starts.

_Dear Gwen_


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Set during 3x08, at the cricket match.

**Such A Fuss**

* * *

_He'd never cared for cricket, but he couldn't deny enjoying how relaxed the rules of class were during the annual match._

_"If I were you," Sybil tells him, sitting with him in the servant's tent, "I'd play just to have something to do."_

_"But if I were playing, I wouldn't get to sit here and talk to you."_

_For a moment he's worried he's overstepped, then she smiles._

_"Well then, Branson, I rather hope you never do."_

"You're very good to play." Cora tells him, years later.

"I don't know why I made such a fuss about it," Tom lies.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Based on the newest Christmas Special trailer which has a very brief shot of Tom kissing the new housemaid, Edna. Link on my profile page.

**Fool**

* * *

She leans forward and it's clear what she intends.

He should stop her but he doesn't.

He closes his eyes and just for a moment he imagines. For a moment it's Sybil, his Sybil, who kissed him so like this, soft and slow before she'd draw back, eyes sparkling and push him towards the bed.

Then they part and reality crashes back down.

It's not her, it never will be.

Edna looks at him hopefully and he knows he's a fool for letting it go so far.

"I'm sorry."

She nods, and leaves without a word.

He's such a fool.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **This actually made me really sad while I wrote it, but it's been mentioned more than once how different Tom is at the end of S3 and this just happened.

**Different**

* * *

He stops talking about Ireland.

He doesn't write to the newspapers again.

He takes a job managing an English estate.

He turns his mind from justice to money.

From people to profit.

From what he loved to everything he didn't.

It won't last, he knows, it can't.

But still he tries; he tries to become one of them.

To become someone else. Someone different from the man Sybil loved.

Different from the man who loved her.

That man, _he_ was the one who was hurt.

Sometimes he hopes, if he's not that person anymore, maybe it won't hurt so bad.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **I debated whether to put this here or in my other drabble collection because Sybil is alive and it's happy but it's sometime pre-S2 so it is canon, therefore I decided to put it here and keep _This Moment_ for only post 3x05 AUs.

**Effort**

* * *

"Oh, do hurry up," Edith sighs as Sybil fixes her hat yet again.

"There's nothing wrong with making an effort," Mary counters.

Sybil nods, making one last adjustment before following them downstairs and outside to where Pratt waits with the car.

"Mr. Branson's taken his Lordship to Thirsk, milady," he tells her when she inquires lightly, hoping desperately her voice gives nothing away.

Sybil just nods, but her hand reaches up to the hair she'd spent so much time with Anna get _just_ right and suddenly, for reasons she still doesn't quite understand, it feels rather a wasted effort now.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** So after two updates to my happy-AU drabbles my muse seemed to feel the need for this. Post-CS.

**Waking**

* * *

When he's honest, he doesn't remember much of the night his wife died.

He's shut it out.

He does remember waking.

The cold, harsh light of the morning. The knowledge of her loss sitting so deep in his heart he's not even granted a respite between consciousness and remembering.

He remembers Matthew, in the chair beside the bed.

_"I didn't want you to wake alone."_

So after Mary has exhausted herself with denial, after the family has left in devastated silence.

He stays.

To return a kindness he can now never repay.

So his sister won't have to wake alone.


End file.
